


Spacedog

by Gamerdog



Category: Spacedog (Original)
Genre: Blood and Violence, Guarddog, IN SPACE!, Identity Reveal, Minor Character Death, Past Brainwashing, Revenge, Spacedog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 19:53:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15825825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamerdog/pseuds/Gamerdog
Summary: After getting the cube from the P.H.O.E.N.I.X base on Askaar, Charlie meets up with another member of his group to deliver it. P.H.O.E.N.I.X isn't done with him though. They are determined to get the cube back, even if it means having to kill him to do it.





	Spacedog

“Ah! There’s my favorite cat!” Sarl exclaimed. Charlie huffed in annoyance, trying not to correct him for the twentieth time. Sarl patted the chair next to him. “Come, stay awhile.” Charlie wandered over and sat down.  
“So, what have you got for me this time?” The striped creature grinned at him, like a child expecting a present. Charlie slung the bag off his shoulder and handed it to Sarl. He unlatched the main pocket, and peered inside. “This is fantastic. I still can’t believe you got this back from them.” The alien stashed the bag away with his other belongings, and patted Charlie on the back. “ You’re really shaping up to be quite a hero, you know that?”  
“ ‘Hero’ is a bit of a strong word..” Charlie trailed off, gazing at the aliens around him. Creatures of many colors, shapes and sizes sat all around the bar, ordered drinks, talked, argued. A small group of red-feathered creatures sat at the table next to them, making quite a fuss over whose drink was whose. It was the usual evening scene.  
“Fine, you aren’t a hero. You’re a damn good thief, that’s for sure.”  
Charlie chuckled at that. “Yeah, can’t deny that.”  
Sarl raised a flabby paw, signalling a waitress to come over to their table. “A beer please, and-” looked at Charlie for him to order.  
“Nothing for me. Not really feeling it tonight.”  
“Come on man, I’ll get you something. You should be celebrating! Gave those P.H.O.E.N.I.X bastards what they deserve, eh?”  
“ Sarl, I’m still kind of tired from before. I’ll stick with water, thanks.”  
Sarl chuckled to himself. “Fine, enjoy.” he turned back to the waitress. “But one beer for me, and make it quick.”  
* * *  
The bar was starting to empty for the night. A few patrons had already left and stumbled off to their ships or found places to stay the night. Some were passed out at tables. The rest were the late-night crowd, the nocturnal species like Sarl who had nothing better to do. Pockets of the room glowed from the light of their bio-luminescent scales or their bright eyes.  
Sarl and Charlie still sat at their table.  
Charlie and Sarl bickered a lot about the insane things that they’ve seen in their travels. They were often convinced that the other was lying, trying to make fantastical stories and fool each other. It was especially hard to tell with Sarl, who was exceptionally good at keeping his cool when making things up on the spot.  
“Okay, there is no way that it could eat something that large. It’s stomach is too small!”  
Sarl, who seemed to be either slightly intoxicated or tired, rested his elbows on the table, and slurred his speech just a bit. “ I’m tellin’ you, I saw with my own eyes! The little rascal ate the whole thing! You could see the bulge in it’s little neck.”  
Suddenly, he heard a loud commotion outside the bar. Charlie heard what sounded to be gunshots, screams, and metal crunching. Sarl, as well as a lot of other patrons, were too drunk or weak of hearing to notice it. Charlie stiffened up at the sounds, his ears perked up.  
“Something’s going on out there. Sounds like a struggle”.  
Sarl sighed. “Best not get into it. Some folks hate people who get into their business.”  
At that moment, a female robot burst into the bar. The intricacy of he design made her look quite human, except for the fact that she was bleeding fuel from multiple places, and her voice was growly, indicating a malfunctioning voice chip.  
“Some-somebody out there’s shootin’ people! You gotta help me!” With that, she collapsed in a pool of her own fuel. A few aliens got up and marched outside, eager to fight this menace, while others started to panic, and ran to their ships. Charlie looked at Sarl, who was surprisingly alert and visibly afraid. They got up from their table and looked for a place to take cover. Charlie’s eyes fell on the long bar counter.

A few minutes had passed, and there seemed to be no stopping this armed attacker. As the sounds of gunshots grew louder and closer, Charlie realized that the shooter was no longer outside. Sarl tapped Charlie on the shoulder, and pointed to a back door. Quietly, they slid out the back door and closed it behind them. Charlie pressed his ear to the door, and could hear noises from inside. There was a long silence. Charlie could only hear the sounds of his heart hammering in his chest. The room then erupted into noise, as multiple people shot at once, then were quickly silenced.  
“Sarl, I need you to take the cube and get out of here.” Charlie rested his hand on Sarl’s meaty shoulder. “I’ll give you my keys, take my ship.”  
Sarl looked stupefied. “No. I’m not leaving you here with that thing!”  
Charlie gave him a hard shove. “Go. Now. I can handle this. I’ve been trained to handle these sorts of things.”  
With one last look of defiance, Sarl turned and fled, hobbling over to the ship as fast as his stubby legs could take him. Charlie watched as the Intrepid took off, leaving him here with the monster behind the door.  
* * *  
With two strong blows, the door burst open, falling to the ground. Charlie stood pressed up against the wall, silent and waiting for the right time to strike. The gunman walked out, and Charlie instantly recognized it. The familiar red eyes seemed to scour the back alley, like a predator seeking its prey.The left eye was cracked, a scar from their previous meeting. Charlie took this as his chance and swung hard, his fist connecting with the right side of the mask. It staggered, then shook off the pain and lunged at Charlie, swiping furiously with a large knife. Charlie tried his best to dodge the swipes, using his forearms to deflect the blade and land a few hits on his attacker.  
The soldier’s armor was quite tough, making it difficult for Charlie to do any real damage. He knew he’d need to find a soft spot. An idea popped into his head. He waited his assailant to lunge forward, then using both hands, grabbed the rim of the mask and pulled back hard. With a bit of effort, he heard a snap, and it came off, flinging him onto his back with the momentum. Charlie gazed at the face of the alien that had hunted him down to this smaller planet. In that moment, time seemed to still. He recognized that face. The hazel eyes, brown hair tied back, pinkish skin. Pinning him down with a knife at his head was the child that came to see him nearly every day. The child that fed him scraps of food and pulled twigs out of his fur. He saw this child every day before he met Dr.Smith. He never saw him again after that. The child never came to visit him in the lab. Finding him here, now grown up, was the true definition of ‘small world’.  
Time resumed flow, and he felt a repeated bashing at his head. The helmet was taking too much damage. If he sat there for any longer, the man might break through, or he might choose a more exposed area to stab. Charlie reached up and grabbed the knife-hand, wrestling the blade away from the man and tossing it aside.  
“I’m not going to hurt you.” Charlie said, his voice getting somewhat dampened through the helmet. The man reeled back and smashed the helmet with his fist. Charlie saw warning signs lighting up inside, stating it’s low integrity and that it will deconstruct if it takes more damage.  
“I said I’m not going to hurt you!” Charlie said, forcing his voice to be louder. “I don’t have the cube.”  
The man barely flinched. Charlie knew he didn’t believe him. The man was going to beat him to death, and search his corpse.  
What a way to go out, to be killed by one of the only ones you’ve ever loved.  
With one well placed blow, the helmet shattered, turning to holographic hexagons and disappearing. With his face plain to see, Charlie braced for the worst. But it never came. He saw the man freeze, staring at the canine’s face with a bewildered expression that quickly melted into regret.  
“Please.” Charlie mumbled. He felt a thin trickle of blood slowly drip down from his forehead. The man recognized him, Charlie was sure of that. It hurt him to see his old friend like this: turned into this killing machine. He just wanted his friend back. The man’s face suddenly changed, full of rage. He slammed his fist into the ground next to them, breathing heavily.  
“I c-can’t do it.” The words came out strangled, as if he hadn’t spoken english in a long time, and it pained him to do so. Charlie finally put together the pieces. He understood why the man was on Askaar to begin with, why he was here now. He felt what might have been the beginning of tears in his eyes. He wanted to reach out, embrace him and tell him that everything will be alright. At the moment, though, he was pinned to the ground. The man’s left shoulder blocked some of his face, forcing the P.H.O.E.N.I.X symbol into his view. The stitched-on bird screamed, whether in rage or anguish Charlie didn’t know. The man twisted back to face him. Before Charlie could react, the soldier punched him hard in the jaw. Charlie writhed in pain. He started to feel light-headed. He saw the world around him fade to black, forcing him into empty silence of the void.  
* * *

Charlie opened his eyes. Immediately, he felt dozens of aches and pains all over his body. He tried to stretch his arms, and winced as they cried out in pain. His face hurt a lot. He guessed that it was probably a good idea to stay where he was for a bit longer. Looking around, he noticed that he was alone, leaning up against a wall. The bar was empty, judging by the silence coming from inside. He looked at the mess on the ground in front of him. The dirt was speckled with bits of blood and a chip or two of broken metal. The events of that evening came back to him suddenly.  
“That would explain all of this” he said to himself. He wondered how it all ended. He must have blacked out, because he couldn’t remember how he got to be sitting against the wall. Moreover, he wondered how he survived that fight. Either it was his lucky day, or somebody out there was watching over him. Either way, there were more pressing matters at hand. He needed a drink. He got up, despite his legs’ protests, and went inside the bar. It was empty, few signs of the earlier struggle remained except for some shattered glass and blood spots here and there. He walked over to the bar, grabbed a bottle from the back, and cracked it open. As he took a swig, he wondered what happened to Sarl. He had a feeling that he was back at HQ, sleeping. There wasn’t much else that alien did in his free time. He left the bar and wandered down the streets, hoping to find somebody who could give him a lift. The human was probably a long way from here, so it wasn’t going to be him.

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: Congrats on finishing this, well, hopefully you did. This was a bit of a challenge to write. After I wrote the previous one, I wanted to do a continuation. I felt the story wasn’t done, and I could do more with the characters. If you don’t know, both the original and this one were heavily inspired by Marvel movies, mostly Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America:The Winter Soldier. These influenced both the world and the scenario respectively. I had difficulty writing this because I was unsure how to make the reveals at the end meaningful, but also keep the tension around the encounter. Guard Dog (the masked man) had to take out at least one person, but at the same time I didn’t want him to become a character that even Charlie couldn’t sympathise with. The way I ended the previous one, there would be little to no chance for this second encounter happening (since if Charlie were to safely make it to HQ with the cube, Guard Dog would have to go full Rambo to get it back, and I didn’t want that.) I didn’t want another heist story, I wanted this part of the overall story to be different. I also had a lot of difficulty with the reveals, since I knew what I wanted them to be, but not how they would happen. I tried to imagine how this would happen in a movie, and it all worked out fine. I can’t really say much about the section breaks and tone, I just wrote this naturally and put the breaks where I thought made sense if it were a movie, like a change in scene. I’d like my writing to improve in the future, in writing dialogue and balancing scene and summary. I feel that I could use some work in those respects. Otherwise, I think I did a good job with this.


End file.
